An extra €3.4 billion will be required within five years to fund a proper care strategy for children, older people and those with disabilities, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has claimed, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
In a policy paper prepared in advance of talks on a new national agreement, Ictu warns that the State has a "major problem" and that funding the care needs of older people alone through social insurance would require a long-term increase in PRSI of more than 2.5 per cent.
It wants the Government to implement an integrated national care initiative to address looming shortfalls in resources.
The Ictu document, Caring for the Future . . . Who Cares?, cites an EU study that ranked Ireland bottom of the 15 pre-accession states in terms of publicly funded childcare.
It calls for a multiannual investment programme to deliver an additional 100,000 childcare places over the next three years.
For many families, childcare is "unavailable and unaffordable", it says.
Although the estimated 320,000 people with disabilities make up 8 per cent of the population, services for them remain "very limited", Ictu claims.
For example, 11,400 await assessment for support services, 6,000 are on waiting lists for personal assistance and a further 4,500 await respite services.
Urgent initiatives are also needed to address the fact that the ageing of the population is set to accelerate over the coming decades, the document warns.
The number of people over 65 is set to increase from 430,000 today to more than a million by 2031, giving rise to "obvious care needs", including greater supports for independent living and additional nursing homes.
Yet, serious inadequacies in this area of care provision already exist, says Ictu.
It argues that while progress is being made through a range of separate projects, current action plans and funding do not meet existing needs.
"More importantly, they don't have the capacity to either develop or deliver a comprehensive, integrated response to future care needs."
Securing the level of investment required to provide a proper care system presents a challenge to society in general and politicians in particular, the document adds.
It stops short of recommending a specific source of funding, but says private savings, private insurance, public taxation, social insurance or an "earmarked care tax" could all be considered.
People need to recognise, the document says, that a national care initiative is as important a priority for continuing economic and social prosperity as the "so-called hard infrastructure of transport, housing and roads".
Ictu will present the document to the social partners as the basis for further discussions in talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress, expected to begin in the autumn.